What Is Real
by Ketsuigetsu
Summary: I was never one to be in groups. I enjoy staying home with a book and nothing else. I like coffee and warm blankets, gloomy days and candles, sweaters and glasses. I like simple things. But what I feel for him, it is not simple. It is complex and beautiful and so inexplicably real that I can't help but dream of his ocean eyes and sunny hair and knowing smile. My Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: I was never one to be in groups. I enjoy staying home with a book and nothing else. I like coffee and warm blankets, gloomy days and candles, sweaters and glasses. I like simple things. But what I feel for him, it is not simple. It is complex and beautiful and so inexplicably real that I can't help but dream of his ocean eyes and sunny hair and knowing smile. I can't help but be attracted to his loudness and his laugh. I cannot help but to love him. My Naruto.

Author's Note: Okay. So, my whole hiatus has been huge. Basically, a lot of shit went down and then up through the roof, and I needed some time to recover. A while, actually. I'm reposting this story because I got an actual plot for it. And, I also met a good friend named Max a few weeks ago, who is also a NaruSasu fan. We were talking this morning, and somehow I mentioned writing. He said he'd love to read some of my work some time, and I figured, fuck it. I need to get back to a routine of writing anyway. So, I took down the original story, combined the first two chapters, and then wrote some more of it. So it's quite a bit longer than it was before, but I know that I prefer long chapters to short chapter. I swear I'll try to actually update regularly. I won't give an actual day because I suck at that, but if I don't just hound me with annoying PM's and reviews and I'm sure I'll be reminded to update. So, in a way, you all have Max to thank for getting me back into the game. Everyone say, thank you, Max!

Disclaimer: If I did in fact own Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke would be married.

**Chapter One**

I am painting in my living room when I hear the front door behind me open, the rustling of plastic bags giving away who it is. The sunlight is washed across the canvas, pouring in from the window to my left, allowing me to work without the lights on. The red rose gently painted in watercolors on the once-white expanse, accented by a blue and purple background, seems to be glowing in the sunlight. I feel a sense of pride rise up in my chest, something that I don't feel often and cherish as it's there before it's gone again. I look behind my shoulder, to see those lovely blonde spikes bent down as he unties his shoes. There are three bags beside him, each emblazoned with the local grocery store's logo, and I set down my paintbrush to help him carry the food into the kitchen. After he removes his shoes, he follows me, standing beside the table that we eat at.

"I wasn't sure what you wanted for dinner Teme, so I just bought some stuff to make spaghetti," he says, and I begin to empty the bag that contains a rectangular box filled with uncooked noodles and a jar of tomato sauce.

I look to my left at his face, and smirk. "And what are you going to have Naruto?"

The blonde looks at me in disbelief, as if wondering how I could ask such a thing. "Well, ramen of course! Don't you know me at all?" He puts his hand over his heart, and sniffs as he turns away, mimicking wiping away a tear as he turns from me. "I thought you knew me better than that."

I feel a smile come to my lips, a genuine one, as I lightly smack him upside the head. "Pull it together Dobe. I'm sure you'll be fine."

He turns back to me, his mouth splitting into a grin, and he reaches in front of me to grab the packet of ramen, his hand dangerously close to my crotch, and I wonder for a moment what it would feel like to have his palm pressed against it.

I quickly shake my head to clear my unruly thoughts. Naruto is oblivious, wiggling his oh-so-wonderful hips to a song playing in his head, humming along as he takes a pot from the top shelf next to the fridge and begins to fill it with water from the sink. I smile again to myself, then walk into the living room and begin cleaning up my workspace. Painting was not my job, nor did I think I was good enough for it to become a career, but Naruto thought otherwise. It was a pastime I had picked up some years ago, when I had taken a trip with my family to Spain and had become fascinated in the art. My father didn't particularily understand art, but he supported my hobby of creating it, as did the rest of my family. When I had graduated high school, my parents expected me to go to college, but I found that living in a dorm with some stranger and having to go back to classes with other students didn't take to my liking. Naruto had been my best friend since we had been young, and he had agreed. He wanted to be a chef, but couldn't afford to go to culinary school, so he wanted to take a year or two off to get some money under his belt. We both had decided to go eventually go to college, just not right now. I needed space, and he needed cash. In our conversations, we had come across the idea of the two of us living together, splitting rent until we were ready to attend school. We decided that this was a good enough course of action, and within a week had rented our own apartment for three hundred dollars a month, I had gotten a job at a local hotel at the front desk, and Naruto was employed at a ramen shop down the street.

Living with the dobe was wonderful in more ways than one. For starters, I had the opportunity to see him whenever the two of us weren't working or running errands. We had at least a few movie nights a week, and some of those he would fall asleep across my chest. We could cook together, eat together, shop together, and watch TV together. We had our occasional fights, but that was expected with our clashing personalities, though in a weird way we balanced each other out. We were light and dark, yin and yang, and I loved it. I loved him. I always had, with what started as hating him, moving to a small crush in middle school, then an infatuation in early high school, and by our senior year I had reached the peak of my feelings for the boy. He was idiotic and immature and annoying, but he was also beautiful and sweet and caring. I loved seeing him wake up in the morning with bedhead, and I loved when he would hug me to make me feel better, and I loved how he would call 'teme' and smile that lovely smile.

I am suddenly shocked out of my reverie by a loud bang in the kitchen. "Ow!"

I quickly put down the tube of paint I was been holding, then run into the kitchen where Naruto is holding his knee and cursing under his breath, the packet of ramen laying on the counter.

"Dobe!" I say, "What are you doing?"

Naruto looks up at me. When at full height, he is taller than me by a few inches, but as he is bending down to massage his knee, his head only reaches my chin.

"It's nothing Teme," he replies. "Just hit my knee on the oven."

I sigh. "Naruto, you have to be careful."

"I know," the blonde says, "I just wasn't paying attention." He stands up, and I realize just how close we are to each other. Only about six inches away. Naruto looks down into my eyes, his ocean blue clashing with my onyx black. They shine at me, and I feel my heart speed up in my chest as he leans forward a bit. My eyes widen, and my breath stops for all of five seconds. Then, he reaches his hand behind me to grab the ramen from the counter.

"Thanks Teme," he says, an odd look in his eyes. "For caring and all."

It takes me a moment to process his words, and I berate myself for not answering the moment he spoke. "No problem Dobe. Just don't hurt yourself again."

He smiles at me, his head slightly cocked to the side, and I have to remind myself to take air into my lungs. "I'll try."

I nod, then power-walk to my room down the hall, the second door on the left, and close it behind me. I keep my back against the door in case Naruto decides to come barging in like he is prone to. I closed my eyes and take a deep breath, then look down at my crotch, which is starting to become heated.

Sometimes, I admit, I want to strangle Naruto for the things he does to me. Well, not specifically me, but my body. But when I think about how close he was, and how great it would be to kiss his lovely, pink lips, I can't help but shiver in pleasure. Naruto was special. I have been attracted to males before, yes, but never one so much as Naruto. Perhaps because I am not a believer in casual sex, and therefore would like to get to know someone before we did anything. Which sounds old-fashioned, and it is, but it is what I thought and nobody was going to change that. I was not only attracted to his body, but his personality, and that's what made my need for him so much sweeter. However, I was not a virgin. Not by heterosexual or homosexual standards. The former was a product of trying to get over Naruto in high school when he began dating a girl who was widely known as easy, after which I came to the conclusion I was - completely and totally - gay. The latter happened on a drunken night after an argument with the blonde. The twenty year old man that took me home was a brunette with hazel eyes and dark skin, and possessed a lilting voice that quickly annoyed me. The experience was enjoyable, but not exactly what I was in to. For one, I had to top, and it wasn't until I realized I would have to do this that I found I was meant to be a bottom. The fact slightly hurt my pride, but I like to please my partners, and I find nothing wrong with that. Especially if it was Naruto.

I hear him call from the kitchen, something about how he's putting on the noodles. My mind is still thinking about Naruto naked in my bed, so it takes a few moments for the thought to register. I yell back a quick, "Okay!" and then lean against the door thinking of innocent things until the tent in my pants is gone.

By the time I make it back out to the living room, Naruto is sitting on the couch with his feet at one end, holding a bowl in his left hand and a fork in his right. He obviously ate something a mere hour or two ago, because he isn't shoveling the ramen in his mouth like he usually does when he hasn't consumed anything since lunch. The blonde is watching some gorey horror movie. He has always liked these, and I have to admit that some of them are entertaining. The rest, however, are basically just pornos with a bit of blood and death thrown in. Naruto finds these about as amusing as I do, and therefore stays away from them. He keeps to the films that contain a little mystery, as well as a fair amount of bodily fluids and many scenes of exposed organs.

He doesn't notice me watching him, but I decide that I should probably go drain my noodles for dinner. As I am doing this, I hear screams and pleads from the TV. When I go back a few minutes later with a plate of spaghetti in my hands, a brunette is being decapitated by a chainsaw, and Naruto has this sadistic little smile on his face. I smirk, loving the look, and use ons hand to move his feet from the middle cushion on the couch so I can sit down next to him. We don't say anything, just watch the movie in silence as we eat. When both of us are done, Naruto finally speaks up.

"Teme?"

"Hm?" I say, because I'm too engrossed in the boy whose eyes are currently being pierced with sharpened metal rods to answer with anything more.

"I've been thinking about something. . ."

I feel my attention sharpen, and I glance over at Naruto, who is trying to look interested in the movie, but the rhythmic tapping of his finger against his thigh gives him away.

"And what's that Dobe?" I try to keep my breathing even, because against my better judgment, I think Naruto is about to say something important about us.

His body shifts a little; he has rested his right ankle on his opposite knee. He turns his eyes to me. "Maybe we need a break."

I sit there for a moment. A break? But we're not together. . .

Then I remind myself that there are dual meanings to that sentence. "What do you mean?"

Naruto's eyes light up, and he turns his whole body to me, his legs now hanging off the side of the couch, his torso facing me. "Like, a vacation."

My eyebrows raise. "A vacation?"

He nods his head, then grins. "Yeah. My family, they have this old cabin a few hundred miles away, on the side of a lake. I didn't know about it until a couple of years ago, but apparently some maids come in to clean it every week, so it's perfectly sanitary." He glances at his lap, then back up at me, and I realize that for some reason, he is nervous upon my answer.

I think over his proposition for a few moments. A vacation? With Naruto? Secluded? In a cabin? It seems too good to be true, and I can't help but feel important that he would choose me to take with him instead of one of his other friends like Kiba or Shikamaru. Then I think of what could happen in that little cabin by the lake, what it could lead to, and I don't feel an evil grin coming to my face like I would expect, but a genuinely happy, excited one. Naruto notices this, and sets his palms on the small space between us, slightly leaning forward. His grin widens, and he says, "Is that a yes?"

I feel myself melt under his wonderful gaze. "Yes, Dobe. It's a yes."

He breaks out into a full smile, his canines unnaturally sharp. Then, the look in his eyes changes, and his grin slowly fades as he leans towards me. He continues to come closer, and it is not until I am fully reclined on the couch that I realized I had been leaning back to escape the feral gleam. He is positioned over me, and I feel the blood rush to my crotch as he moves his head closer, until we are a mere half foot apart. Then, he uses his left hand that is to the right of my head to pull something out of my hair. He dangles it in from of my face, and I feel it tickle my nose. It is a small ball of white string.

"You had a fuzzy in your hair," he whispers, and I cannot help but think that he made his voice sound as sexy as it did.

He gets off of me, and walks to the kitchen to throw the ball in the trash, humming quietly. I stare at the ceiling, my arms spread out, and it is not until he shuts the door to his room that I realize I had forgotten to breathe again.

* * *

It is two days later that I come to the conclusion that Naruto is the single most infuriatingly ramen-obsessed being on this planet.

He wants to bring forty-five packets with us. Forty-five.

"Sasuke!" He whines, for perhaps the hundredth time today, when I tell him no again. "The cabin is half an hour away from the closest town. Half an hour! If I run out, how will I get more? Do you want to deal with me complaining about having none? Do you?!"

I take my thumb and forefinger, pinching the bridge of my nose as I sit on the couch while Naruto keeps his place standing in front of me, like a child facing his parent. "Dobe. You are talking forty-five fucking packs of ramen. I know for a fact that you can eat that much in three days time, but if you keep up this appetite you're going to die from an overload of sodium in your system before you're thirty!"

Naruto throws his hands up in the air, yelling in frustration, then yells back at me,"Fine! Have it your way. But you're cooking for me, and when I start whining about being hungry, I don't want to hear you complaining about shit!" At this, he stomps off to his room, slamming the door, and I hear him yell again in his anger before there is silence.

This is one of the times when Naruto seems too much for me. When our personalities are too opposite, when the yelling and arguments about stupid things are too much, when I just want to kiss him and then have wild sex and have it be all good and happy. But the problem is, I'm simply not brave enough. I have times where I think, I'm just going to do it, but then I hesitate for one moment, just one half of a second, and then I'm freaking out over all of the what-if's. I think a part of me has accepted that I'm never going to have him, that that's what he is to me: everything I can't have. It scares me, because we'll be out shopping or going to see a movie, and I'll see him looking at someone, and I don't get mad or anything, I just get sad. Like I expected it all along. Like I expected not to have him choose me. Maybe it's because even in high school, all of the people I didn't want wanted me, but the one person that did, well, he barely thought of me as more than a friend. As far as I know, he still does.

I stop myself there, my thoughts coming to an abrupt stop, and the emptiness in my chest is palpable as I run a hand through my hair and stand up from the couch. I walk into the kitchen, looking around for the keys to Naruto's car that we've been sharing this week while mine gets a new engine, and, when I find them, I quickly walk out the door and into the stormy evening to get the-kind-of-but-not-really-mine-Dobe's forty five packs of ramen for our vacation.

When I pull up into the parking lot of our apartment complex, the rain is still coming down hard. It's 7:48 in the evening, and for the most part dark at this time of year, but I can see a light on in our window from here.

I climb the stairs two at a time, trying my best to keep my hair and the ramen dry from the downpour. I almost slip a few steps from the second floor, but I am able to reach out and grab the slippery metal banister before I can fall. When I get to the door, I turn the knob, realizing that I forgot to lock it when it turns easily in my hand. As I step inside the warmth of my home, shaking my head a bit like a dog and shutting the door behind me, I hear a pot being dropped in the kitchen, and a mumbled curse. I can gather from this that while I was gone, Naruto decided to sneak out and make some dinner, only to have me return as he was in the process, and be caught in the act.

However, I'm taken by complete and total surprise when I step into the kitchen, my hair sopping wet, my jacket dripping a mess in my wake, probably looking like complete and total shit, and Naruto, my absolute perfect, golden-haired and blue-eyed Dobe, placing the dropped pot back onto the shelf where he had knocked it down in his surprise, with a full dinner laid out on the table.

I feel like a goldfish, my mouth moving, opening, closing, then opening and closing again. My eyes flit from Naruto, who is now smiling at me with the most beautiful grin I have ever seen before in my life and scratching his head, to the table covered with food. And then I start counting the plates: there are twelve. Two hold roasted chicken pieces, and I know that he had to walk to the grocery store two blocks away in the rain to buy this and some of the other things, because he wouldn't have enough time to make them. But the plate also has a salad on it, along with a stuffed tomato, and off to the side I see a bowl of ramen he made for himself, and I cannot help but smile. There is a small cake in the middle of it all, only five inches wide, covered in a dark blue icing (which is my favorite color; of course he would know that) and I know that it must be a chocolate cake, because although I'm not a fan of sweets, I have a love for chocolate cake, and Naruto knows this well.

I look up at him now, and I notice that he's moved closer, just a few feet away from me, and I see that his blonde locks are indeed damp. He speaks to me then.

"Teme, I don't know what's wrong with you lately." He looks at me weirdly, and I feel guilty, realizing that I must have been more moody than I thought. "But you're my best friend, and I don't want to fight. We've been friends for years, and I want us to be friends for more years." He takes one step closer. He's only two feet away now. "I want you to know that I'll always be here for you Sasuke. It might take me awhile sometimes to understand why you do the things you do, but if we work together, I think we can always get through shit like this." His eyes are boring through me, like X-rays, and I feel like I'm being studied. As he's speaking, his pupils flick towards the scars on my arms, and I know what he is thinking. But then he closes me into a hug, and for a second I'm confused, because it's been a few months since he's hugged me for more than a few seconds, but when it hits me, I say,"I understand, Naru," and his grip tightens on me and then it is gone.

He steps back, and his eyes are blue- so blue, it startles me, and I want to take that blue and surround myself with it, bathe in it, live in it. He moves to stand behind me, then leads me to the table, and pulls out the chair behind me. He uses his strong but gentle hand to push lightly down on my shoulder, and I sit down, and then he moves the chair back in. He walks around to sit down in his own chair, and before I can even pick up my own fork, Naruto is eating.

After five minutes, when I've only been watching the beauty that is my best friend, Naruto Uzumaki, he looks up at me, swallows, and says,"Aren't you going to eat, Sasuke?"

I smile at him, then pick up my fork and knife to begin cutting into the chicken. "Of course, Naruto."

* * *

The next day, we are pulling up to a large cabin next to a beautiful lake at two in the afternoon. The whole place is secluded from the campgrounds that surround the lake, which apparently is a really popular place to the locals. If the distance of one mile from the assigned campgrounds isn't enough, the whole property is surrounded by signs blaring "PRIVATE PROPERTY" at anyone who sees them, and I smirk as I think that as a teenager I never would have listened to those stupid signs.

Naruto is fast asleep beside me, stuffed full candy and fountain soda from a gas station we had hit up an hour ago. He's sitting up, but his head is leaned back, his arms limp in his lap, snoring. It's not a loud snore, but not a quiet one either. I look at him and smile for a moment, then reach over him and open his door.

The blond wakes with a startled look around him, after having pitched to the side of his door opening so suddenly, and I almost laugh but hold it back as a smirk and light chuckle.

"Temeeee!" he whines, and I take the opportunity to open my own door and get out to stretch my legs, lifting up my arms and arching my back much like a cat would after a nap. Out of the corner of my eye I see Naruto getting out of the car, looking up at the cabin and then turning to me as I stretch. "So," he says,"Are you ready to get all of this shit out?"

This time I turn towards him, my stretching complete (the bastard refused to drive the whole 5 hours, saying he didn't have his glasses so it was "unsafe", even though he's never needed glasses his whole life), and sigh, then say,"Yeah. Let's get everything out of the back first."

We open the back doors of the small car, one of us on each side, and start grabbing duffel bags and backpacks to take inside. We had each brought three, mine consisting of an assortment of clothes, shoes, hair products (I like my hair soft. Sue me.), paint, brushes, pallete, a sketchbook, some pencils and erasers. Naruto's on the other hand, were full of haphazardly thrown in shorts, shirts, and boxers, and his only pair of shoes were a pair of worn out flip-flops he was wearing right now. His last bag was filled with the forty-five packs of ramen he insisted on bringing with us.

I look back up to the cabin, and this time I really pay attention to it. It's pretty big, with a few rooms I'm sure, and the porch is large enough for a whole group of people to lounge around comfortably. There are chairs and two tables laid out on one end of the porch, and overhead protecting them from any rain that had passed through, and on the other side there's a large swinging bench hanging from the roof. The whole of the cabin is made of wood (obviously), with round logs making up the walls while the roof is consisted of shingles in a dark brown color. From where I am, I can see a second story window at the front of the house, the curtains drawn to allow some sunlight into the room.

On the other side of the car, Naruto has finally wrestled his bags away from the car, and is walking up the gravel path to the porch. As he climbs the steps in front of me, my eyes sneak down to look at his hips, and I watch them move in rotation as he walks to unlock the door with a few curses, then pushes it inside the cabin with ease, and I smirk to myself.

When we get inside, the whole place is nice, homey, warm. The floorboards are a light polished wood with no ugly blemishes that I can see and the furnishings include a two couches, a glass coffee table, a loveseat, a fluffy looking chair, all set out in front of a large television setup with e DVD player in the cabinet below the TV. The other cabinets on either side contain movies, plenty of them, and I realize that this place must not have gone out of use as long as Naruto made it seem if it had a fully functioning DVD player and that many movies.

While I was busy ogling the living room, Naruto had walked up three stairs to get to a landing that housed the kitchen, a beautiful, large thing with cabinets that matched the color of the floor and shiny silver appliances set atop stone counters. The blond had already set his things down on the floor, and was making his way towards the fridge with a hungry gleam in his eye.

"You're not seriously already looking for food, Dobe?" I ask, but it doesn't deter him from his path. "We just ate a gas station an hour ago, you know." I cross my arms and smirk, leaning up against the counters.

"Teme! That was gas station food!" he replies, and he opens the fridge only to groan, letting his arms fall down to his sides and looking up the ceiling to emphasize his frustration at the emptiness of the large kitchen appliance. "Gas station food is barely anything! And now there's no food here either!" He closes the fridge in a pout, then begins looking in the cabinets. In the end, all he finds is where the plates and bowls are, but no food.

I chuckle a bit. "Dobe, you brought ramen with you. Remember? Or did you forget how you begged me for a whole day to let you take it with us?"

Naruto walks up to me, his arms behind his head and laughing. "You're the one who let me! You only have yourself to blame for that one." At this he wags his finger at me, then turns around and starts heading out to the car to get the grocery bags of food in the trunk that we had picked up in the same town the gas station was in. "I'm going to get stuff for dinner," He says as he walks out, then turns back to look at me, his hand on the front door's knob. "You can take your stuff upstairs, second door on the left. The first door is a the bathroom and the one of the right is my room. If you have time before I get back, take my stuff up there too for me, yeah?"

I nod, uncrossing my arms to pick up my own things beside me, the head down the little kitchen landing, and then up the stairs beside it. They're a bit creaky, and I count seventeen of them until I reach the next story. The hallways is average, not too big but not too small, and at the end I see a window, letting sun into the small expanse of the cabin. It's not until I walk towards it and see Naruto at the rear end of the car, trying to carry as many bags as he can in his hands that I realize it's the window I was looking at when we first got here. I chuckle a bit at the blond's panicked expression right before two of the bag slide off his arms and onto the ground not-so-gracefully. I can tell from here that he curses at the bags, then starts heading inside with the ones he has, probably to come back for the one's he dropped later for a second trip. I turn around, opening the door to the room that's going to be mine for the next two weeks, or hopefully mine and Naruto's if my plan goes as accordingly.

The room is calm and warm like the rest of the cabin, another window allowing sunlight to pass into the room and onto the bed laid out in the middle. It doesn't have much; there is the bed and a dresser to the left of it pushed up against a wall, then a small closet on the opposite side, and a rug on the floor. In front of the bed is another television set, albeit smaller than the one in the living room, and another DVD player.

When I set my bags on the ground next to the closet, I immediately walk towards the bed, throwing myself on it on my back. I lift up my left arm to shield my eyes from the sunlight, then let myself relax. It's comfortable here, I have to admit. Then I think of what it would be like if Naruto were in the bed with me, his head on my shoulder while I trace the skin on his hip with one of my fingers. I don't know about him, but the thought brings a sort of aching in my heart, not painful, but an excited one. I am excited to see what will happen on this trip, what will happen between Naruto and I. I knew that Naruto was attracted to men, but it was the question of whether he was attracted to me that I was concerned about. We had been friends for so long, maybe he would find my affection towards him odd and disgusting. That was my worst fear, I think. For my feelings to be thought of as disgusting. I have had my fair share of being prejudiced against because of my sexuality, but for Naruto to think of them as something adjacent to a gross-looking insect because of our seemingly brother-like relationship was a whole different thing. Our whole lives we had been close, and now here I was, scared out of my mind of the things he thought of me, or of things he could think of me, because of my feelings towards him. There was a chance that he thought the same, but when you care for someone so much, when do you focus on that? You're only focused on the bad things. The consequences of your feelings and the things that could come with them.

Naruto and I no longer living together because of the discomfort. No more movie nights. Or him accidently falling asleep on me. No more Naruto Cooking Nights. No more of him barging into my room and jumping on me to wake me up. No more messy blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, tanned skin and muscled body.

God dammit. I was getting hard again. The thought of his body had such a huge effect on me, and seeing it was worse. The Dobe walked around shirtless more often than not, and I'm sure if he lived alone, he would walk around naked.

Oh, God. Naruto. Naked.

"FUCKING HELL!"

As I heard Naruto scream downstairs, I felt myself jerk out of my thoughts. I had almost fallen asleep there. I sighed loudly, pushing the air from my lungs as I got up on my feet and padded my way downstairs to where Naruto was holding his foot, cursing as he leaned against the countertop with a large pot next to his hand.

I walked up the landing, staring at Naruto pointedly until he noticed me.

"Oh! Teme! Sorry I didn't notice you there, I was trying to rearrange the kitchen and this giant thing fell down onto my foot. . ." He winced as he touched the reddening part of his foot again, then straightened up to look at me.

I smirked again. "You're clumsy as hell, Dobe. You need to learn how to not get hurt so often. It really dampens my paycheck sometimes."

"Hey!" Naruto says, crossing his arms. "We only had to go to the emergency room once, and that lobster got me good. It's not my fault he didn't die as fast as the rest of them did," he grumbles. "And you only paid for it because I had been out of work with a cold for three days! And I still made you dinner, you prissy bastard!"

I laugh out loud this time, the slight blush covering Naruto's cheeks standing out in beautiful contrast with his tan skin. He looks taken aback for a moment, probably freaked out by the fact that I don't laugh very often, especially as he's trying to insult me, but I couldn't help it. The boy was like an adorable overgrown child throwing a fit. "Whatever, Dobe," I say, and he pouts out his lip at the friendly insult I use so often, then watches me as I turn around to walk out the door.

"Teme, where are you going?" he asks a bit frantically, as if I might be going to get the car and drive away back to our apartment because of my hurt from his insults.

"Just to the car. I saw you leave some bags out there from the window upstairs, and I need to go get them."

"Oh," the blond laughs, and out of the corner of my eye as I'm slipping my shoes back on, I see him run the back of his neck. "Forgot about those. Close the trunk for me too, will ya?"

I nod, then continue on my way out of the door. The sun is in a different position that when we got here, and the shadows have shifted around the cabin. The two bags are still right where Naruto had dropped them, and I reach with one hand to grab the plastic handles, then walk around to close the trunk. As I turn to go back inside, I hear a voice call out behind me.

"Hey!" a male says,"Wait up!"

I twist back around to look behind me, curious and slightly annoyed at someone trying to talk to me when I have things to get back to (more specifically, blond, blue-eyed things with delicious hips and a gorgeous body), but then stop when I see the man jogging up to me.

He looks to be around mine and Naruto's age, maybe a couple of years older. His hair is a dark brown, wavy and chin-length. He's tan like Naruto is, but a bit darker, and his eyes are a hazel color. He has a piercing in his nose, just a silver ring, and even from here I can see the muscles he has rippling under his shirt as he moves. He's wearing a light blue tanktop and a pair of khaki cargo shorts, something that reminds me of a surfer from California. As he gets closer and smiles at me, his teeth are a dazzling white, but I try to keep my eyes from wandering on him too much.

The man approaches me, walking now that he's closer, still flashing his smile. I notice a pair of ear buds hanging from his shoulders, but the music is paused as far I can tell.

"Yes?" I ask not looking forward to wasting my time on him. He's okay-looking, I'll give him that. Probably handsome to most people. But he didn't really compare to Naruto.

"I got lost," he says. "I was out playing Hide 'N Seek with my friends, and I was the seeker. When I was looking for them, I found myself out here. I was wandering around when I saw you getting things out of your car. Do you mind telling me how to get back on the main road?"

"There are private property signs all over this place," I tell him, and I have to say his story is a bit weird. "How'd you miss those?"

He laughs a bit. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm sorry that I intruded on your place, but I didn't mean to."

I don't smile back at him, only open my mouth to begin telling him to follow the driveway out, and in about half a mile he'll get to the main road, when I hear another voice.

"TEME! What the hell's taking you so long?!"

It's Naruto, and I hear him running from the porch to stand beside me. "Who's this?" he asks, and I stare pointedly at the man in front of us that is looking at Naruto like he's a three-course meal in front of a starving man.

"I'm Hikaru," the man says, stepping closer to us and I feel the sudden urge to growl at the expression he's giving Naruto. When I look back to the blonde, I feel my anger rise when I see his eyes are just coming up from raking up and down Hikaru's body. "I'm Naruto!" he says, rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous gesture and grinning at the man. Then the blond grabs my elbow to yank me to his side, and saying,"This is Sasuke. We're staying in my parent's cabin a two weeks." He grins again.

Hikaru's eyes light up, and I glare at the man while Naruto continues to chat him up. I don't listen, just let my eyes wander us. The trees are big and green, their needles in large bunches, and pinecones litter the ground. To the left of us and the cabin, the water of the lake is smooth, with light waves hitting the sandy area in front of it. The dock that juts out into the water looks a bit old, bit it's still holding and there are no holes; either way, I make a mental note to myself check it out and make sure it's safe before the Dobe decides to go running off it into the water. It is then that I hear the offer Naruto makes to Hikaru.

"You should stay for dinner!" the blond says with that same grin on his face, and I snap my head back towards them and the conversation I was leisurely ignoring.

"Dobe!" I scold,"We barely know him! Why don't you wait a few days before inviting him to dinner?"

In all actuality, I simply don't want Hikaru barging in on mine and the blond's vacation. This is supposed to be our time together, where I attempt to find out how he feels towards me, if I ever get the guts to approach that conversation.

"Temeeee!" Naruto whines, and he pouts out his lip as he crosses his arms in determination. "He's a nice guy! We have to be nice and offer our hospitality. Plus, I make a badass homemade pizza." At this, he looks back at Hikaru, and I see the brunet wink at him before Naruto looks away and back at me, his tan cheeks dusted a light pink.

I don't answer. Just give a stiff,"Hn," with a glare in Hikaru's direction, and turn to grab the bags off the ground to start walking back into the cabin. My anger - fine, my jealousy - is overcoming my mind, especially at the way Naruto seems to like Hikaru's flirting. That pissed me off. It isn't too long afterward that I hear the two laughing and making their way towards the front door, too.

I make sure to shut them out on my way it.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Next chapter! Took a bit to update, but holy hell, my uncle has been keeping me busy. Max has continued to be my main update reason, though you, my readers, and those of you that are kind enough to review and enjoy my fic enough to favorite/follow it give me the inspiration as well. So, once again, here is a chapter dedicated to Max, and you, readers!

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Naruto.

**Chapter Two**

I am awoken in the morning by the smell of pancakes and to the sound of Naruto singing. Even from my room I can hear him. I try at first to go back to sleep, but after a particularly high note from the blond, I deem it impossible, and climb out of bed. I go to the closet where I have already unpacked my clothes and hung them up in their respective places, then grab a pair of tight jeans and pull them on before descending the stairs, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

As I walk into the kitchen, I see Naruto in front of a griddle with his right hand wrapped around a spatula, and his left thrown up in the air in an odd pose as he sings out the last line of his song. It's after this that he notices me, then smiles that beautiful smile and puts down his arms. "Morning, Sasuke," he greets, then turns back to the griddle where he flips a perfect pancake to it's other side.

"Morning." I probably would have thrown in a,'dobe' there, but it takes me awhile to wake up, so I leave the insults for when I can think correctly.

"I'm made you food,"Naruto says, pointing to the stack of pancakes he finished making before I came down. "It's pretty late, and I would have waited so you could help me, but I got hungry and didn't feel like starving to death."

At this I look towards the stove and squint my eyes a bit to see the time. My eyesight isn't horrible, but I do have a prescription for glasses and things like numbers are hard to see from this far away. It's 12:36. I have to admit, I am a bit surprised at the time. I sleep late, but never this late. When Naruto and I were younger, I was the one who always got up early, and he slept in. He would come to school tardy and by out senior year I was showing up at his house around seven a.m. to wake him up and give him a ride. After we graduated though, I guess waking up at seven carried on with him, because he never gets up later than 9 every morning whereas it used to be around eleven. I, however, began to sleep as he did, waking up at ten and eleven every day. I blame it on my pushing myself so hard in high school, and, now that I have some slack, I'm able to relax more. Naruto, on the other hand, is just so full of energy he no longer needs the sleep.

When our schedule became like this we started a system. Naruto would wake up, take a shower, shave if he had to, then go in the living and watch TV for awhile. Once it hit nine forty-five, he would get up and start the coffee-maker, ready for me when I emerged from my slumber. Then, when I woke up and sat at the table drinking my life force, he would ask,"So, what's for breakfast, Teme?" and I would reply," Whatever you want, Dobe, as as long as it's not ramen," and he would whine a bit and curse my healthfulness and then begin to make what he was craving that morning.

I walk towards the stack of pancakes on the counter, counting them (there were five) and then grabbing the plate and turning around to sit at the table. Naruto begins singing again, much quieter, but I don't pay attention to the words as he brings me syrup and butter from the fridge. Soon, the blond is sitting down across from me with his own stack of pancakes, except instead of butter he puts peanut butter on his. We used to always give each other shit about it, and once I accidently called him an uncultured swine and he laughed so hard he cried and then made fun of me for a week straight about how I used an insult from Toy Story. I had to explain to him then that my mother used to put it on for my brother and I while we were younger and she needed to cook or clean, so without meaning to the memorized dialogue had carried on to my vocabulary as a teenager. Now, however, Naruto and I sit in a comfortable silence as we eat our breakfast, him still humming along to the song he's been singing all morning while I silently bask in the beauty of his voice.

"Hikaru wants us to go to his side of the lake today," Naruto says without warning, and I stop chewing for a moment, then start again when I look up at him and see his innocent eyes.

When he doesn't get a response from me, he continues,"It'd be nice if you came, Teme. he's actually a really great guy, and I think you'd like him. After all, you put up with me, don't you?" At this he grins, and I have to admit that he has a point.

After a few minutes of me still being silent, Naruto looks dejected and I realize that he looks that way because I never said I would go. I finish up the rest of my pancakes, get up from my seat and rinse off my plate, then sit back down and say,"Okay."

Naruto, who has been picking at his food and taking a bite about once every minute, suddenly brightens at my words and grins again. "Okay! He said he'll be down by the south side with a few friends. He also said to bring swimsuits."

It's at the last part I groan a bit, then narrow my eyes at a chip on the table. After a bad experience with swimming when I was younger, I didn't like it much, at least in lakes and open water. Pools I were okay with, as long as they were clean, but anything else? Nope. "I think I'll just stay on shore,"I say.

Naruto's eyes narrow a bit. "Nuh-uh, Teme, you're going swimming. In all the years I've known you you've only gone swimming in a lake once! Have little fun." At this Naruto abandons his clean plate in front of him (he had at least a pancake and a half left thirty seconds ago; how the hell did he eat it so fast?) to stand and walk behind me. He stops when he's a few inches from my back, and my heart is already beginning to beat faster. He places one hand on the side of my neck and the other on my shoulder, and if I thought I was tense before, I'm now resembling a rock. He begins kneading my shoulders, slowly, but with force, and he says,"Relax, Sasuke," so close to my ear that even though my heart speeds up three times as fast, I allow my muscles to loosen and eventually I lean back in the chair. Naruto continues to rubs his fingers into my shoulders, then moves down to in between my shoulderblades, and then to my lower back, avoiding the chair's back as if it weren't even there. I eventually lean onto the table, laying my arms down and then putting my cheek on them, and close my eyes. Naruto begins his hum again.

I think, This is nice, and then the other thoughts start bombarding my mind. A memory that started out quite like this, except it was at my own apartment back in Konoha and the scent of alcohol was all around me and in my own mouth and everything was quite fuzzy, and I remember strong, tan hands - the same strong, tan hands that are on me now - running all over my skin and wonderful lips and a beautiful stomach and that damn swirling tattoo and-

- And suddenly there is a knock at the door. It jolts me out of my thoughts, and I hear Naruto chuckle a bit and then leave his space behind me to answer it. I, however, am trying to control the sudden onslaught of memories from that night, the night that I was never supposed to think of again, for the Dobe's sake. They keep coming, though, and I notice another problem, quite a noticeable one, that originates a bit farther down. I stand up from the chair, my back feeling much more relaxed that it did when I woke up and walk quickly to the bathroom. Halfway there, hell bent on getting rid on my 'problem', I hear Hikaru's voice and Naruto's laugh. Oh, no you don't, I think, and then I instead walk upstairs and into the bedroom to grab a jacket to tie around my waist. Once I'm done, I quickly go back downstairs, where the Dobe and Hikaru are chatting idly in the kitchen, Naruto cleaning up the mess he made while cooking breakfast as the other boy leans against the counter, watching.

When I get there, I sit back down at the table, crossing my arms and slumping down quite a bit, with what I'm sure is a scowl apparent on my face. At first I don't think Hikaru notices me, but then he looks at me without surprise as I'm glaring at him, and says,"Hey, Sasuke, are you coming with Naruto and me down to my side of the lake to hang out with my friends for awhile?"

I don't even reply with my customary,'Hn,' just grunt a bit and then look back down at the chip on the table from earlier.

"That's 'Sasuke Talk' for 'yes'," Naruto explains, smiling in my direction, but I'm too angry to look back at him and instead continue my staring contest with the chip.

"Well," Hikaru starts,"we better get going, so you two get grab your swim trunks and I'll meet you at my cabin, yeah?" He grins, his white teeth spreading like a sharks, and Naruto lets out a whoop of approvement before high-fiving the brunet and then walking him to the door. Afterwards, Naruto stands in front of my chair, his arms crossed and looking down at my scowling face with a scowl of his own. "You could be less of an ass to him, you know?" he says, but I only allow the angry lines in my face to deepen.

"He pisses me off," I say, as if this is reason enough for my actions, but even Naruto knows that it's more than that.

He sits down on the table about a foot away from me, sighing. "What am I going to do with you?" he says with a small smile. It's times like these that I appreciate how well Naruto knows me. He can recognize when I'm not ready to talk about something, and I have the feeling this is one of those times, otherwise he wouldn't be letting it go so easily. Having someone know you even better than he knows himself can be irritating as hell, but I'm also not one for emotional conversations on my part, so when it does come to the time to have one, Naruto can tell when it's time to start really getting on my case about it and when he should just let it go for the time being.

When I don't look up at him or even reply, he lifts his hand to start weaving it through my dark hair. He's done this ever since we were younger, to calm me down when I got too pissed off or too anxious or even just when I was sitting down in the living room watching TV. I've noticed Naruto does it to me when he's upset too, so I have a feeling that the action calms him as well.

"Do you still want to come, Sasu?" he asks, using the customary nickname for me that he developed when we were around seventeen.

I suddenly feel bad for my actions. I don't regret them, because Hikaru really does piss me off, but I regret that they make Naruto have that look on his face, like he's the one that's being a dick to one of my friends. I remind myself though that if it had been Hikaru and I friends instead of he and Naruto, Naruto wouldn't have even thought anything of it. He'd probably encourage me to go out and spend time with someone other than him for once, and then bombard me with questions about how it went when I got back. He wouldn't feel the overwhelming jealousy I do whenever I see him and the brunet together; he wouldn't get angry and be an asshole, and he wouldn't feel a tinge of pain in his chest when he saw the brunet and I getting along. No, Naruto would be happy for me. I wish I could be like that for him and Hikaru too, but with the blatant way that Hikaru is always coming on to Naruto, it's hard for me to not be jealous of the attractive man.

"Do you want me to come?" I ask, my head still down and my eyes continuing to stare at the same chip in the table.

Naruto sighs a bit, but doesn't stop his motion of running his fingers through my hair. "I would like it. I like having you with me, Sasuke."

I feel my heart beat faster at that, and even though I know he doesn't mean it in the way I would if it were I saying those words, for a moment I let myself pretend he's saying them that way and it makes the moment that much more bittersweet, while reminding me that I will never have this beautiful boy as my own.

I let out a quick,"Fine," but don't let him hear the hurt that would be otherwise present in my voice had I not masked it. Naruto brightens up a bit, his lips spreading out into a large grin and then he takes his hand out of my hair.

"I'm going upstairs to get changed then!" he says cheerily, and I get up from my seat on the chair as Naruto goes bounding up the stairs to his room. I follow soon after, while giving myself a small pep talk. You're a fucking Uchiha. What was it that Itachi always told you? Don't let your emotions get the best of you. And Mom, Mom always said that jealousy was an ugly thing. Just let it go, Sasuke. You're letting your manliness slip away again.

I get changed quickly, then walk back downstairs where Naruto is already waiting with two towels in his arms, one black and one orange. His swimming shorts are an even brighter shade, with a swirling design in black that runs all over them. Mine are much more simple: just a dark blue with a red drawstring and two pockets on one side, one of them black and the other the same shade of red as the drawstring. Naruto's odd, swirling, tattoo around his bellybutton stands out in the black ink on his stomach, and my eyes are inevitably drawn to it as I descend the stairs. To be honest, I've never liked that style of tattoos much. But on Naruto it looks so unbelievably sexy and fits him so well, I have to wonder if that's the love for the blonde talking.

I take the offered black towel from Naruto, and throw it over one of my shoulders. He wraps his halfway around his neck, then grabs onto each end with each of his hands. I open the door, and he grins that fox-grin at me again. I let go of my shitty, over-emotional self, and vow to let Naruto have a good time today. Then I smile at him back, a small smile, but I know he'll see it for what it is.

And then we close the door and start walking down the driveway.

* * *

Around forty-five minutes later, we're at Hikaru's side of the lake. We approach from his driveway, and I notice his cabin is much like Naruto's, albeit smaller and the back of the cabin is facing the lake, while the front is towards the driveway. I have to say that I like the Dobe's and mine more, simply because it faces the sunset, which Naruto loves, so I expect it will bring forward a lot of requests from him for he and I to sit out on the small pier that juts out into the lake as the sun descends behind the mountains.

The lights in the cabin are all on, and even though the blinds are shut, through a window we can see what looks to be someone swaying back and forth to the music 's laughter, and Naruto and I walk up to the door. He raises his hand to knock, but before he does the door is thrown open and a grinning Hikaru is standing there. He's looking at Naruto likes he's a meal, and I feel my blood boil despite my vow to let him have a good time today and tonight. The brunet lightly grabs Naruto's upper arm and drags him inside, and I try to hold my anger as I walk through the threshold myself and then close the door behind me.

The setup of the cabin is basically the same as mine and the blonde's, except the kitchen isn't raised and the stairs are on the left side of the room rather that on the right. Besides that though, it holds the same aspects, without the warmth that I feel at the other cabin. To my left is the person we saw dancing in front of the window as we were walking up, a girl, with sand-colored hair in an odd hairstyle consisting of four ponytails on each quadrant of her head and green eyes. Her slim body is covered in a thin-strapped light purple tanktop and a pair of shorts, her stomach showing a good few inches. She's not wearing any shoes, so I'm able to see the small tattoo on her foot of a flower I don't recognize having it's petals torn by a gust of wind. She is staring at me with her eyes half-lidded, raking up and down my body and suddenly it's as if the dance is three times as sensual as it was before. The girl doesn't move from where she is though, and I'm grateful for that, especially considering I don't much feel like being felt up by her when I'm shirtless.

I hear a bark of laughter that sounds like Naruto, and calmly turn my head towards the kitchen, where the blonde Dobe is laughing with Hikaru and another one is another brunet, like Hikaru, but he's taller and has more muscle. His hair is spiky like Naruto's, and his brown eyes are surrounded by a purple paint which is also on the rest of his face in a symmetrical he sees me, he stops laughing but continues to grin, then walks towards me, followed by Naruto and Hikaru. "Hey, who's this guy?" he asks as he stand in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his hip to the side in a slightly feminine gesture, yet he still manages to remain manly.

Naruto suddenly perks up, then walks to stand next to me, swinging an arm around my shoulder. "Oh, this stoic bastard?' he says with a grin. I shoot him a warning glance, but he doesn't even look at me. "This is Sasuke, my best friend."

The man looks at the two of us disbelievingly. "You're telling me the ray of fucking sunshine is best mates with the ice prince?"

Naruto laughs. "Yup!"

"How the hell did that work out?"

At this, Naruto smiles a bit evilly. "Well, you see, the Teme may look like an ice prince, but in reality he's a huge sweetheart who treats everyone as if he has a pole shoved up his ass."

I glare at him then, not allowing the slight blush I accumulated from being called a 'sweetheart' show, before whacking the blond upside the head and crossing my own arms across my own chest like the purple-face-painted brunet. "Shut it, Dobe, before I shove that pole up your ass."

The man laughs, then says,"Well, I'm Kankuro."

"Hn."

Kankuro raises an eyebrow at my response, looking towards Naruto for clarification. "He's a social once, ain't he?"

Naruto places both of his hands on my shoulders, kneading them twice before replying,"You have no idea."

"And why didn't you introduce me, asshole?!"

I turn around only to come face to face with the girl that was previously dancing. She has both of her hands on her hips in an angry gesture, and is glaring at Kankuro. "I believed you were old enough to introduce yourself, dear sister of mine," the brunet replies with a shrug.

The blonde huffs, before turning to me and holding out her hand. "Temari Sabaku, at your service." Her smile is warm but daring, and I'm sure that it would hold an effect on any other male that wasn't gay as I was, and come to think of it, even if I were straight I don't think she would be my type. I hold out my hand to hers and she grabs it, shaking it once before letting go, but she purposely lets one of her fingers trail my palm before taking it away.

I hear a huff of air being let out near my ear, and turn that way to see Naruto with a bit of an angry look in his eyes. The look confuses me; Naruto rarely dislikes someone, and he never let first impressions deem his opinion. Hikaru suddenly speaks up. "So, you guys all ready to swim?"

Naruto and I both shift our bodies back around to see the brunet grinning and in swimming shorts. His face instantly makes me angry again, not that I wasn't annoyed before. Temari and Kankuro both nod, then start making their way towards the back porch and then to the edge of the lake. Hikaru engages Naruto in another conversation, this one about video games, and they move to go out the back door as well. It's as I'm about to follow them that I notice another person in the room, a boy that can't be older than seventeen or eighteen sitting on a stool in the kitchen. His hair is an unnatural color of red, and his emerald green eyes are piercing through me with a look that indecipherable. He's keeping his hands folded on the counter, but his back is straight that gives off an air of danger. I don't let it phase me, though. My own brother has given me a worse look when I pissed him off enough. The boy nods to me once, and I nod back before making my way outside.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: School started, and I'm working now. I have the next two chapters written though, and I'm learning to manage my time better. Love you guys.

Disclaimer: I wish.

**Chapter Three**

By the time I make my way outside and down to the shore of the lake, Temari and Kankuro are already in the water, splashing each other while Temari screams abouther makeup being ruined and Kankuro yells that she shouldn't have been wearing any if she was going in the water.

To my left, Hikaru and Naruto are both stripping off their shirts, and I feel myself amazed once again at the light abs on Naruto's stomach, still not understanding how a man who eats almost nothing but ramen and Rocky Road ice cream (besides when I force him to) can be so lean and fit. Hikaru suddenly slings his arm around Naruto's shoulders as the blond laughs, and I narrow my eyes, then turn away towards the water. I haven't taken my black tank-top off yet, and honestly I'm not planning to. Water's never been my thing. I think is has to do with one of Itachi's friends pushing me and making me fall into a river when we were younger because I had made him angry. I must have only been around eight, Itachi at thirteen. After Itachi jumped in and rescued me, he punched his friend in the face and told him to never touch me again. I have to admit, even though he is a dick for the most part and enjoys teasing me about my feelings for Naruto (he found out on his own, and has been harassing me about them for a year now), he is a really good brother. I'd never tell him to his face, though; can't afford to make his ego any bigger.

I step lightly into the water, going until I'm up to my knees, resigned to at least walking in it a bit. It's cool on my feet, and if I had been up for swimming it would have been the perfect temperature. Suddenly, everything is quiet.

Much, much too quiet for when someone like Naruto is around.

"Hey, Sasuke-Teme!"

I turn to look at the blond idiot that called my name, only to see that he's running full-speed at me with his lips forming a gorgeous grin and his arms spread out. I try to run away and dodge him before he comes crashing into me, but I'm nowhere near fast enough to escape, and he tackles me with his long, tan arms around my neck as we both fall into the water. I feel my back hit the sandy bottom of the lake, the small rocks scraping my back. I had gotten in one breath of air before the blond and I were completely under the surface, so my lungs are okay, but he's still holding me down. I look up at him, still underwater, to see him grinning, our faces impossibly close and his eyes look so damn blue compared to the slight murkiness of the lake, even though it's still clear enough to see his face. I glare at him, using my right arm to punch him in the side, the movement slowed, but by his slight flinch when my fist connects with his ribs I'm sure it still hurt a bit.

I smirk up at him to let him know I'm not actually mad, and his grin gets impossibly bigger, making his eyes close and to where I can see all of his front teeth. He suddenly swings his body back, standing up and pulling me with him by his arms around my waist. The light hurts my eyes at first, so I close them and shake my head to help get the excess drops out of my hair. When I open my eyes to look at Naruto, he still has that stupid grin on his face and his arms are still around me. I look down at my sides where they disappear to, what I assume, link behind my back, and feel a bit of heat travel to my cheeks. I look back up at him, and it's as if he suddenly notices our position, unlinking his hands hurriedly and bringing them up to cross behind his neck in a gesture of what would seem comfort to most, but actually screams 'discomfort' to me.

"You're at idiot," I say, crossing my own arms in front of my chest and glaring at him again. "And an asshole."

He laughs at me, the odd tension in his shoulders disappearing as replies,"You weren't going to get in! I had to think of something."

I toss my head to the side. "You got me wet."

At this he smirks at me, and I have to admit I think he's been spending way too much time with me, because it's identical to the one I usually throw at him, albeit sexier. "Don't be such a princess. Just go take your shirt off, and then me, you and Hikaru can have a water gun fight or something."

When he mentions Hikaru, my eyes unbiddingly try to seek him out, and I find him talking with the now-out-of-the-water Temari and Kankuro, a small smile on his face. Hikaru feels my eyes on him, I suspect, so he walks towards us and once again slings his arm around Naruto's shoulder.

"He got you pretty damn good, didn't he, Sasuke?" he says, and I mutter a quick,"Hn," before directing my attention to Naruto again. "I think I'm going to go inside, actually. I'm thirsty." With that I walk away, not giving Naruto any time to try to argue with me.

In all actuality, I'm handling this Hikaru situation like shit. Shouldn't I be sticking to Naruto like glue, trying to scare Hikaru off, or at least rubbing mine and Naruto's good friendship in his face to piss him off? Shouldn't I be 'marking my territory' or something like that? That's what guys usually do, right? But instead I'm finding every initiative possible to escape him, and letting him be with Naruto as much as he wants. I'm allowing him to get closer to Naruto, and to let him fall more and more for the Dobe. I always knew I was horrible with dealing with situations pertaining the blond; for instance, when we were little we were always getting into fist-fights, and then as we got older we became more verbally abusive, and then curved into fist-fights again, only to now using the once-hurtful names for each other as terms of endearment. Naruto and mine's relationship has always been confusing. We fight and yell at each other and we tend to give each other a lot of wounds, but somehow we always end up going back to each other. It was a magnetic force; he was the positive, and I the negative. Every single time we fought and we would tell everyone how much we hated each other, it'd always end with us giving shitty apologies and Naruto hugging me because he thought I didn't like him touching me, when in reality I love it more than anything, and then I'd hug him back and we'd go make dinner and watch a movie in our shared apartment. We'd been that way for the last four years, fighting and making up, and I don't see it changing, unless Hikaru got in the way.

I had always told myself that Naruto would never feel that way about me, though, so why shouldn't I let him be happy? If they did end up dating, would Naruto move out to live in Suna? Would I be left alone in our apartment to beat myself up over what could have been?

My in-depth thinking is interrupted when I find myself at the back porch of the cabin. _You're being an idiot, Sasuke_. I make my way to the glass door, sliding it open and closing it after I'm through, then making my way to the fridge, set on drinking the first alcoholic beverage I find. It when I resign to searching the cabinets that I notice the redhead from before watching me from his stool at the counter. And he has a bottle of Strawberry Hill right beside him.

I disregard my usual awkwardness with strangers and gesture to the bottle with a nod of my head. "May I?"

The boy nods, grunting out a,"Hm," before handing me the bottle as I sit down on a stool beside him. I waste no time in tipping the already-opened bottle to my lips, letting the wine slide down my throat as easily as I can for not drinking anything other than wine coolers for God knows how long. The redhead doesn't seem very fazed though, as if he knows exactly what I'm feeling and why I'm drinking like my dog just died.

When I set the bottle back down on the counter, he says,"Looks like I have a drinking buddy for the rest of the night."

I laugh a bit, morbidly at best, and reply,"If you'll have me, I'd love to be your drinking buddy." I hadn't meant for it to sound that way, but I really didn't want to think anymore. I just wanted to stop with the thinking and the bullshit and Hikaru and Naruto and that shit called feelings.

He smiles at me and says,"Gaara." I stare at him blankly for few seconds before he says,"My name. Gaara."

"Oh." God, looks like I've stopped with the 'thinking'. "Sasuke. I'm Sasuke."

Gaara takes another drink from the Strawberry Hill, then hands it to me and asks,"So, Sasuke, what brings you inside on such a sunshiney-fucking day like this to get drunk with a loner like me?"

I take the wine, tossing it back into my mouth before answering. "Long story, that."

"I can do long stories."

I smirk at his eagerness. "Maybe when I'm a bit more drunk."

He smiles back at me, his green eyes glittering in the bit of sunlight that catches them filtering in from the window. "Fair enough."

We take turns drinking from the warm pink wine, climbing higher and higher up Strawberry Hill, until finally I start talking, about everything; Naruto and our friendship and my hidden feelings and Hikaru and what this vacation was supposed to mean and how I basically suck at feelings in general. He sits there and listens to me talk, and I learn that that's the way Gaara is. He doesn't try to offer help unless you ask, and he doesn't try to comfort. He just lets you rant as much as you want, especially when you're drunk and can barely keep track of what you're saying, and then he agrees that yes, you do suck at feelings, but those are things that can be worked on. And then he gets up to grab another bottle of Strawberry Hill from a hidden stash in the cabinet next to the fridge, and he let's you take the first drink and you start talking about bullshit things until a stupid blond and an even more stupid brunet and two more idiots come bursting through the sliding door like they're being chased by fucking Godzilla.

"Sasuke!" Naruto says, once again standing right next to Hikaru,"Where have you been? You completely ditched us."

"I wanted to get drunk," I say plainly, taking another drink, and by now my words are less than sophisticated and my whole body is warm and fuzzy. Naruto gives me a weird look, because he knows I only ever drink when I'm with friends, pissed off, pouting, or all of the above. It's only been about half an hour since I came into the cabin to hang out with Gaara, but it seems that was enough time for the rest of them to finish their swimming for the day.

Suddenly, Naruto grins and snatches the bottle from my hand. "Then let's get wasted together, you ditching Teme!" With this, he knocks back the pink liquid, finishing off the last quarter of the bottle Gaara and I never got to. I smile back at him, but then, of course, Hikaru is bringing Naruto another Strawberry Hill from the cabinet, and they decide to go in the living room to put on some music. Soon there are some melodies playing from the stereo system set up all over the cabin that I know I recognize, but my mind is too fuzzy to remember the name of the song and artist.

Throughout the night, everyone else dances and laughs and has fun, and Gaara and I continue to sit on our respective places, passing our own shared bottle back and forth while the others carry one of their own. I watch Naruto as he smiles with Hikaru, Temari and Kankuro, and even when he begins to dance with Hikaru I can't bring myself to look away despite the pain in my chest. I notice Gaara watching Hikaru the same way that I've been watching Naruto. He catches me once, and I nod at him before handing him the bottle in a silent understanding.

Eventually, Gaara stands and says,"I'm going to go to bed. This is making me sick."

I nod at him again before replying. "It was nice to meet you."

He smirks a bit. "Yeah. I had a good time, having someone to wallow with and all."

I'm about to tell him that I wasn't wallowing, but he's already walking away, so I just lean back against the counter on my stool and keep watching Naruto. He and Hikaru are still dancing, and I look on as the brunet spins Naruto around before bringing the blond flush against his body, his arms around Naruto's neck and the blond's around his waist. A part of me suspects that Gaara knew something like this was going to happen, and that's why he left. This is the first time I've seen Naruto so entranced by a male, and it's interesting but painful to watch. At the coffee table in the living room, Temari and Kankuro are watching a horror movie. I can hear the terrified screams and the splattering of blood hitting the walls, but make sure to not look at the T.V. screen.

A few minutes later, after I've stopped drinking the Strawberry Hill, content with my fuzzy body and bad coordination, Naruto trips while dancing with Hikaru. The brunet lifts him up under his arms, while Naruto is laughing like it's the funniest thing in the world.

"I think Naru here's had enough," Hikaru says to me, chuckling a bit to himself at Naruto's attempt to stand. I feel my skin prickle at the nickname Hikaru's stolen from me, but let it slide. I'm too exhausted to really give fuck anymore.

Naruto tries bargaining with him, slurring out pleases and trying to get Hikaru to dance with him again, but Hikaru only laughs and leads the blond over to me.

"Dobe," I say nonchalantly as I take in Naruto's appearance as he stand in front of me.

"Hey, Sas'ke," he slurs back, his breath reeking of alcohol.

Hikaru takes his arms away from Naruto's waist and shoulders, allowing him to take a few steps for himself, only to have him stumble right into me. I sigh, using my arms to upright him next to me, recalling how Naruto has a habit of not knowing when to stop drinking at times like this.

"I had a good time today," Hikaru says, grinning widely and glancing at Naruto. I reply with a curt,"Me too."

When Naruto starts falling asleep against my shoulder as I'm holding him up, Hikaru says,"I think you're better take him home." He chuckles lightly, and I nod before hefting Naruto up a bit more and then making my way toward the door. Temari and Kankuro yell out their goodbyes in voices too loud to be sober, and I wave back lazily. I use one hand to open the door, walking out then shutting it behind Naruto and me.

He's still dozing on my shoulder, and I jostle him to wake him up.

"Wuh, Sas'ke?" he asks tiredly.

"I can't carry you all on my own, Dobe. I need your help, too."

He gives a grunt, then starts to shuffle his feet as we walk. It's slow and we're both stumbling quite a bit, once even falling down in the dirt, but we make it back to the cabin in one piece. I set Naruto down on the bench on the porch and open the door, then go back for him and put him on the couch before going back and closing it. He flops down with no regard for his clothes, his feet hanging off one edge. I stumble up the steps to Naruto's room on the second floor, trying not to trip on the disastrous mess consisting of his belongings, and grab the blanket off his bed. I bring it back down to him, glancing at the clock on his bedside able as I go, and registering that it's only ten o'clock at night. I walk back down the stairs slowly with my hand on the banister for balance, then head towards the couch where Naruto is sitting up and laying back staring at the ceiling. His eyes are unfocused, but he's smiling.

"Here," I say as I cover him with the blanket, and he turns his body to me as I sit down next to him.

"You're pretty, Sas'ke," he replies, and I raise my eyebrow.

He laughs at me. "Nooooo, seriously, Sas'ke, you're pretty! Like a butterfly!"

I shake my head at him. I know he's drunk, but hearing him say these things is fucking with my head, and I can't help but to know he wouldn't say any of this sober.

"Go to bed, Naruto," I tell him, but he only scoots closer to me, then puts his head on my shoulder.

I sigh, resigned to his idiotic, drunken antics, only to hear his breathing slow. I look down, and his eyes are closed, his face peaceful albeit red from the alcohol. I could get up and go up to bed if I wanted to, but the thing is, I really, _really_ don't want to. It's not often Naruto drinks, it's just that when he does he doesn't know when to stop. His breath feels nice on my neck, calming. I decide it's best if I just stay here, because I don't know when I'll get another chance like this to just enjoy Naruto's presence.

I fall asleep calmly, quietly, and quickly, knowing that if Naruto gets up anytime during the night, I'll be too deep asleep to wake.

* * *

There's something warm on my arm. Something breathing. Whatever it is, its heartbeat is erratic, beating in quick succession against my bicep. My head it turned to the left. Everything is fuzzy. What had happened? Red hair; Gaara. Pink; Stawberry Hill. Yellow; drunk Naruto. Yes. We went home, and fell asleep on the couch. I wasn't supposed to wake up though, and it's still dark. So what's happening?

Something warm on my mouth.

I open my eyes, slowly, and am met with blond eyelashes. I react with a quiet surprise, not jerking or anything, but my heartbeat speeds up to match Naruto's. I know it's him, because the person who has their lips on mine has the same white scar over their right eyebrow that Naruto has from when we got into a fight our Freshman year and I made him hit his head on a locker.

Naruto shifts his position, so that he's leaning less against my arm, and tilts his head.

This is a dream. It's a dream because I've had dreams like this before and even though they've never felt this amazing I know it still is one because this would never happen in reality. It has to be a dream.

He lets out a sigh of content, and then it finally clicks in my head. _This is a dream. I can do whatever I want._

So with that conviction, I close my eyes, pushing my lips against his. He jumps, but I bring my hands up wrap them around his neck, and he takes his to wrap around my waist without too much hesitation. He tilts his head again, and I tilt mine the opposite way, kissing once, twice, three times, slowly. Eventually it begins to become faster, and we're moving with each other in a quick succession that suggests we've been doing this with each other for years. Naruto leads my back down and to the right, laying me down on the couch, and climbs fully on top of me. One of his legs is on my side, and the other is thrown across the rest of my body. He continues kissing me, letting out sighs and small groans and soon I'm making sounds of my own.

He bites my lip and I open my mouth in a quiet gasp, and then his tongue is wrapping with my tongue and his hands are on my waist, behind my back, everywhere. He tugs on my hair with one hand, and the pain makes everything so much better. I gasp again, and he moves his mouth to my neck, sucking on my pulse and kissing the skin and then licking doing it all over again. The sounds coming from me are something I have never heard before, not even in my other dreams, and I feel Naruto's hard erection against my thigh, and I know he can feel mine against him too.

Then he stops. Just like that. He just stops, sets his head down on my chest, and after a few minutes of each other panting his breathing slows and he is once again asleep. I was about to start screaming at my

sub-conscious self for not finishing the wonderful dream, but to be honest it was so much better than the rest I've had that, even without completion, I was willing to deal with it. The Dream Naruto's weight was comforting on top of me, half of it distributed on the couch where part of his body was, the rest on my chest and legs.

I match my breathing with his, and soon I'm pulled back into the darkness of being without dreams.


End file.
